Every week another petition. It must seem so if you read last week’s diary. We spend long cold hours outside Zimbabwe House telling the passing world what is going on in Zimbabwe and normally run two petitions at a time. Sometimes we have a lively debate about them with passers-by; people from all over the world are concerned.

Last week the Vigil announced the launch of a new petition demanding elections in Zimbabwe as soon as possible because of Mugabe’s failure to honour the Global Political Agreement. This week we sent Morgan Tsvangirai a petition we have been running for several months urging the MDC to stop co-operating with Mugabe. The petition reads ‘Petition to the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. We urge you to refuse to co-operate with President Mugabe until he respects the rule of law and complies fully with the agreement under which the Zimbabwean coalition government was formed in February.’

Here is what we said in our letter to Mr Tsvangirai: ‘Enclosed is a petition signed by hundreds of people passing by the Zimbabwe Vigil outside Zimbabwe House in London. We note that the MDC’s partial withdrawal from government late last year prompted new moves by the Southern African Development Community and we urge you to do the same again in the hope that SADC will again intervene to ensure either that Zanu-PF complies with the GPA or that elections are called soon under international supervision.’

It will give Mr Tsvangirai something to read given that all ZANU PF ministers have been told not to report to the Prime Minister in future. He might like to consider his position in the light of the AU summit’s backing of Mugabe and the election of Mugabe’s client, President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi (absentee owner of a Zimbabwean farm), as the organisation’s new Chair. It was ironic but predictable that Zimbabwe was elected to the AU’s ‘Peace and Security Council’ – a resounding vote of confidence in Zanu PF’s gangster regime.

The Vigil noted the demise of NEPAD at the AU summit. It was said that ‘it couldn't deliver a single project during the last decade.’ Remember NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development)? It was a brainchild of South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and promised good governance in Africa in return for aid. Remember Mbeki? He is the man responsible for keeping the Mugabe regime in power, with the help of it seems of Rwandan genocidaires.

For us at the Vigil things fell into place when we saw a report from the Rwandan New Times (http://allafrica.com/stories/201002030876.html) that a top genocide suspect is working for Mugabe along with several thousand compatriots from Rwanda. They apparently live in fear of being sent home so will do anything to keep him in power, plumbing new depths of bestiality. We noted during the last elections that torture victims spoke of being abused by people who could not speak English or the Zimbabwean vernacular languages. We assumed at the time that they were Angolans.

We doubt the British parliamentary team considering aid for Zimbabwe had an opportunity to meet these Rwandan killers during the team’s brief visit to Zimbabwe. But they may have learnt something of the looting of the Marange diamonds and the power it has given to the Zanu PF mafia. They might also have noticed the publicity about the Zimbabwe Presidential scholarships. These are supposed to be paid for by Mugabe but in fact come from aid money and go to the children of top Zanu-PF people so that they can study abroad. Zimbabwean student leaders are angry that the money is not at least spent to prop up the decrepit Zimbabwean education system.

It was lovely to have some sunshine even though it got bitterly cold when the sun set.

Some other points:

The new Swazi Vigil was grateful to Sue Toft of our management team who bought four Swazi flags for them to display to compensate for the Swazi High Commission lowering their flag last week at the launch of their Vigil. The Swazi Vigil was joined by a family who spoke about how they had suffered under King Mswati’s autocratic rule and how a relative had been murdered.

We were pleased to be visited by Bahar Milani and Armin HZ from Iran Solidarity UK – especially in view of the closer relations between Zimbabwe and Iran. They have asked for our support for a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London (see Events and Notices section for details). Bahar tells us they have prepared a poster showing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shaking Mugabe’s hand.

It was good to welcome the Reverend Bonnet Moyo and Pastor Lucky Siyafa of the Southend Brethren in Christ Church who prayed with Vigil supporters for the deliverance of Zimbabwe.

Another visitor was Dr Tim of ZBN News who has launched ZimVigil TV from footage he took at the Vigil today, Check: http://www.zbnnews.com/home/index=108. ZBN News have been tireless in filming human rights events and activists in the UK to help publicise the plight of Zimbabwe.

Mathias Makozhombwe of Motherland ENT has produced another video of the Vigil. This was filmed last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeI4veVo0H0.

'Truth be Told? Debating the Human Rights Record of the Exiled Liberation Movements of Southern Africa'. Wednesday 10th February at 5pm. Venue: Keynes Lecture Theatre, King’s College, Cambridge. The seminar is chaired by Martin Plaut, Africa Editor, BBC World Service News and participants include Professors Jocelyn Alexander (Oxford), Saul Dubow (Sussex), and Stephen Ellis (African Studies Centre, Leiden & Free University Amsterdam) with Paul Trewhela, author of ‘Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO’

Iran Solidarity Protest. Thursday 11th February from 4 – 8 pm. Venue: opposite the Iranian Embassy, 16 Prince’s Gate London SW7 1PT. (Between Knightsbridge and High Street Kensington Tube Stations.) Iranians are demonstrating for human rights and freedom on the day the Islamic Republic of Iran celebrates its ‘Islamic Revolution’s Victory Day’. For more information, contact: 07507978745,
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or check: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/.

Strategic Internship for Zimbabweans organised by Citizens for Sanctuary which is trying to secure work placements for qualified Zimbabweans with refugee status or asylum seekers. For information: http://www.citizensforsanctuary.org.uk/pages/Strategic.html or contact:
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.

For Motherland ENT’s videos of the Vigil on 30/01/2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeI4veVo0H0 and the Vigil on 26/12/2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdPsBsief0s and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX6sv2T9gwk .

LAST_UPDATED2

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 30th January 2010

Written by Administrator

Sunday, 31 January 2010 17:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeI4veVo0H0

Video courtesy of Motherlandinc

With the failure of the SADC-mediated talks to resolve differences over the Global Political Agreement, the Vigil has launched a new petition calling for elections as soon as possible.

The petition reads: ‘Petition to President Zuma of South Africa: After a year of the Zimbabwe interim government it is clear that it is going nowhere so we call on President Zuma as mediator for the Southern African Development Community to arrange free and fair elections as soon as possible.’

It is our intention to submit the petition to the South African High Commission during President Zuma’s state visit to Britain in March.

Zanu-PF has made clear it will not honour the GPA; in fact it has shown that it will sabotage any reform that endangers its hold on power, including the constitution-making fiasco.

The MDC is apparently asking SADC to step in and resolve the impasse. The Vigil’s view is that SADC must set a date for new elections and take steps to ensure that these are free and fair. This could include seeking help from the African Union and the United Nations. After all, elections have been organised in Afghanistan and Iraq in even worse circumstances.

We were puzzled by Tsvangirai’s remarks at the international meeting in Davos about easing sanctions. He spoke of ‘rewards for progress’. Reward Mugabe for obstructing the GPA? Reward the MDC for caving in to Zanu PF? Tsvangirai said ‘It’s not as if I am here as a salesman for Zimbabwe’. He sounded like a salesman for appeasement.

It was another freezing day. Several people joined us straight from supporting the first Swazi Vigil outside the Swaziland High Commission near Buckingham Palace, including Thobile Gwebu, the organiser of the Swazi Vigil. They noted that the Swazi flag was lowered when they started drumming and that they were filmed by people inside the building. Hero of the day was Fungayi Mabhunu of our management team who carried a heavy table and a drum on public transport to help our Swazi friends. Supporters of the Swazi Vigil are puzzled how the Swazi government can afford to maintain a High Commission in London while its people starve.

The Swazis wish to thank David McAllister of the Zimbabwe Vigil who set up a website for them – www.swazilandvigil.co.uk.

There has been good progress on the delivery of goods to our selected schools in Zimbabwe. Pupils and staff at Gwinyai Primary School were delighted to received sports equipment and stationery. A video of the occasion is being sent to us. We will report when the rest of the goods are delivered.

Some other points: • Susan Chechita boarded a bus in Liverpool at 6.20 am to be with us at 2 pm. Heaven knows what time she got home but we were pleased to see her. • Mathias Makozhombwe and Nasiso Kashiri of Motherland ENT, a Zimbabwean music production outfit based in Coventry, were back with us today. They took more video footage of the Vigil and will send us the link to their video in due course. • A human rights lawyer came by to see us because their practice has so many Zimbabwean clients. The lawyer was very please to spend some time with us. • A lady from Yorkshire stopped by and said that her 8 year old son had written to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown because of the situation in Zimbabwe! • Thanks to Nobuhle Ndlovu for her help today, especially with the register and merchandise on the back table. • Congratulations to Patson Muzuwa and Esther whose baby son (also Patson) was born on Wednesday.

Given all the attention paid in Zimbabwe to the recent comments by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Vigil supporters were surprised that commentators only seem to have noticed his rather obvious remarks about sanctions. What was much more interesting to us was his praise of President Zuma’s Zimbabwe policy.Answering questions in Parliament, Mr Miliband said ‘President Zuma is playing a careful hand, and he is playing it rather skilfully’.

What does he mean? We know Mr Zuma has said he wants elections to resolve the Zimbabwe situation next year. No more dilly-dallying: ‘park’ disagreements. South Africans have always had a reputation for ‘making a plan’ and we hope that President Zuma will soon explain what he has in his ‘careful hand’.

In particular, the Vigil wants to know how he will ensure that the Zimbabwe elections are free and fair given the refusal of Zanu-PF to relinquish power and its readiness to use violence. When we know this we can assess how ‘skillfully’ he is playing his hand.The Vigil would like to welcome President Zuma as a friend when he visits London in March. This is on the understanding that by then he will have answered satisfactorily our question: ‘What is your plan?’

In the coming week Vigil supporters will be attending a meeting in Parliament of the committee looking into aid to Zimbabwe (see below for details). The Vigil has already pointed out to the committee our view that there should be no relaxation of pressure on Zanu PF to honour what they have already agreed in the GPA.

We were happy that we have been able to help the launch of a Swazi Vigil in London. They are to protest outside the Swazi High Commission (see below for details) every Saturday in support of freedom. We are sure Zimbabweans will support a struggle against an autocratic ruler (and friend of Mugabe) who would starve his people to pay for a Boeing for his wives.

Good news this week is that a consignment of sports equipment and stationery from the Vigil has arrived in Zimbabwe.This is thanks to a class at the DolphinSchool, Battersea, and their teacher Steve Garvey.Through their fundraising efforts they collected around £900. Thanks especially to Fungayi Mabhunu who sourced and purchased all the goods, helped by Arnold Kuwewa.Thanks also to Chipo Chaya and Moses Kandiyawo who helped Fungayi dispatch the goods.Four schools have been selected by Vigil team members to receive the equipment and we will keep you informed of deliveries to the schools.We are hoping that penpal friendships will result between pupils at these schools and the pupils of the DolphinSchool.

Some other points:1.‘Don’t worry you are going to win’ – that was the cryptic message given by a passer-by to one of our regulars, Francesca Toft.2.Vigil supporters are planning to go to Chatham House on 3rd February to hear Sekai Holland talking about national healing.Josephine Zhuga of the Vigil will be there to ask if she can have back her house stolen by a Zimbabwean policeman. 3.Thanks to Loveness Chikwanje who was with us at the start, helped throughout and packed up at the end.

Here is a synopsis of the highlights of the Zimbabwe Vigil for 2009 (mostly taken from the weekly diaries)

Monday 12th JanuaryFrom our Press Release: “A leading Zimbabwean political activist in the UK campaigning for human rights in Zimbabwe has been taken into detention and told he is to be deported. Luka Phiri was helping organise a demonstration in London for Tuesday 13th January calling for Zimbabwean failed asylum seekers to be allowed to work in the UK. Phiri is on the management team of the Zimbabwe Vigil. He is also a leading member of the Zimbabwe Association, a charity looking after Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the UK. Phiri entered the UK in 2003 on a Malawian passport and it is apparently for this reason that the Home Office wishes to expel him. Vigil Co-ordinator Rose Benton said “There is no doubt that Luka is a Zimbabwean but the Home Office wants to send him back to Malawi, a firm supporter of Mugabe. Malawi will send him on to Harare where he will face retribution from the Mugabe regime.”

Vigil supporters were dismayed at President Zuma’s comments on the deadlock in Zimbabwe and agreed to revive our petition to the international football federation to move the soccer World Cup from South Africa.

The petition had been signed by thousands of passers-by before we suspended it when we believed Zuma was prepared to take action to enforce the South African-negotiated Global Political Agreement. We decided to ‘unpark’ the petition now in light of Zuma’s cynical suggestion that the MDC should simply accept that Mugabe would not implement the agreement he signed 16 months ago. Zuma said the MDC should ‘park’ the issues in contention.

Vigil supporters wonder how you can ‘park’ issues like law and order (Tomano) and institutionalised corruption (Gono).Why is the MDC, which won the 2008 elections, always expected to make concessions? Why doesn’t Zuma suggest that Mugabe ‘park’ his greed and monomania and do what he promised? In other words, how can there be free and fair elections if Mugabe flouts the spirit of the GPA, flawed as it is?

The Vigil believes that, by not addressing the human rights issues in Zimbabwe, Zuma is putting the whole region in danger. He needs to take another shower.

The tragic violence accompanying the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola should be a warning to FIFA that the World Cup teams and their supporters could be at risk in South Africa, especially with the renewed xenophobic assaults there on Zimbabwean refugees who continue to head south for help.

Other points·A quick survey revealed that none of us has been recalled to Zimbabwe to join the donor-funded constitutional consultation gravy train. It appears that one official has urgently recalled 5 of his children from South Africa to take part in the US$70 per day exercise. ·Zimbabwe is continuing to keep bad company.A leading article in the Times on 14th January compared Haiti after the earthquake to Zimbabwe: ‘What was once regarded as the jewel of the French Empire now more closely resembles Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe’. Another depressing comment on the reputation of Zimbabwe came from the head of Somalia's central bank who warned that his country could ‘descend into another Zimbabwe if plans to print money went ahead’.·There was an interview with the Vigil on SW Radio about our petition to the British parliamentary committee discussing aid to Zimbabwe, check: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news110110/ukurged110110.htm and newsreel broadcast on Monday, 11th January.·After last week’s snow we were amazingly lucky today. It rained steadily in London till we gathered at 2 pm and was basically dry throughout our whole Vigil. ·Great to have the front desk stewards back again – Gladys Mapanda, Josephine Zhuga, Sue Toft and June Pedzeni. Also thanks to Godfrey Madzunga who was there at the start to help set up the Vigil and man the back table.